Love Co. hunter harvests 30 point non-typical whitetail deer Sunday

A hunter in Love County harvested a potential record setting buck over the weekend.

Joe Pratt said he has lived in Love County for five years and harvested a 30 point non-typical white tail deer over the weekend.

He said he first saw the deer during the 2017 season on his trail cameras.

"And we hunted that deer that year," Pratt said. "I hunted that deer very hard myself, to no avail."

Pratt said he showed a trail camera video to his grandson and the deer got a nickname.

"And it appeared to him to be a ghost, what he called a ghost," Pratt said. "So the deer, retained the name, the Ghost."

Leading up to the 2018 season, there was no sign of the deer.

But then, the Ghost reappeared on one of his trail cameras this season.

“I hunted both stands back and forth all week long because I took a whole week of vacation just for this deer," Pratt said. "God bless my wife, she allowed it to happen and I love her with everything in my heart.”

He said he and his step-daughter were hunting when they saw a deer on Saturday.

Pratt said he had to squat down in his tree stand to shoot under some branches.

The deer was about 70 yards away and he had a about a 10 inch window.

Pratt took a clean shot with his muzzle loader and hit the deer in the neck.

He and some friends looked for the deer but lost the blood trail.

A group went back the next day and found the Ghost.

Pratt said he called his wife and best friend about the exciting news.

"God love him, I don't know if he could understand what I was saying but all I could say was 'It's him. It's him. It's him. It was him'," Pratt said.

"And he said 'show me a video' so we face timed over the phone and he started chanting 'Joe Pratt. Joe Pratt. Joe Pratt' and it was an amazing day."

On Monday, a certified scorer came to Pratt's house for a green score, an unofficial measurement of the antlers which is combined into a score.

The Ghost had a green score of 236 1/8.

The state record for Oklahoma is 248 6/8, according to the Department of Conservation.

Pratt said the deer will be officially scored after the antlers have dried for 60 days.

Pratt said he later plans to have the antlers mounted.